vintage overlays

[low_delta]

Okay, here are the rest.


Nero's Saloon and Florist Shop, now the Stagecoach Inn. In the original, there's a Schlitz sign hanging where the Stagecoach Inn sign is. During prohibition, Nero's became a candy and soda shop.


This was The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company. It was a ladies' coat store when I was a kid. Now, it's the visitor's center, and the General Store Museum. When they restored the building, for use as the visitor's center, they uncovered that store logo on the side.


A couple of shots didn't work out because mine were taken at a different time of day than the originals, and different sides of the buildings were in sun and shadow (see below). This one was the correct time of day, but it still has a sort of negative look, due to the color the church was painted.

Note the stream on the right. Now notice the street that runs in front of the church? That's the mill race coming from the mill behind the photographer(s). It was covered over when they built that street.


I like how the truck on the left is parked in nearly the same place as the wagon. Most of the buildings you can see in either the old or the new version are the same. I had to do some Photoshopping to get the two framing buildings to line up right, but couldn't quite get the other buildings in the right places.

Comments

[ravengirl.livejournal.com]

I really like these-- your style is unique.

[sirreal13.livejournal.com]

Nice results. You could do a lot of post card work, if you wanted. If I had a lot of time on my hands (and a good camera + PhotoShop), I might could convert the modern image to B&W and then retint the whole thing to confuse the hell out of people.

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

Oh my god - these are so cool (and I just saw the earlier post, too)! I wonder if there's any historical society near you who would like to see these. They would be fun for a website, or for kid's education.

I can't figure out how you got the angles matching. Did you take the book of photos out with you so that you could compare them while outside, or just take tons of photos from every angle to try to replicate it, or did you manipulate them on the computer?

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

The Ozaukee County Historical Society is located in the old Interurban depot, which is in the other post. :-)

Mostly, Cyn held the book, while I lined up the shot. It's pretty easy to stand in the right spot with respect to the angle from the building. Like, you walk down the sidewalk until the features line up. It's a little harder to get the height right. I took them all from my standard camera height, but most of the originals were taken by short people, from tripods. The other hard part is getting the right distance away.

Then I resized the new pictures to match the old pics, by width. That required math. If the height wasn't right, I had to stretch the image, vertically. In one case, I had to change the perspective, by narrowing the bottom of the image. I'd never done that before. The old view cameras were able to shift their lenses, so you could make the vertical lines vertical, rather than converging (like when all the tall buildings lean inwards). I don't have one of those lenses, but I do have Photoshop.

photo tricks

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

Having a different person definitely helps - I've tried it on my own, and it never really works.

Shifting perspective is the other thing I was thinking about. I have a Photoshop-like program, and I can skew things, but it's not a really good program (and I often don't have the patience).

Re: photo tricks

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

I redid the first picture on this page. I really had to mess with it for a while. I stretched, skewed and warped it quite a bit. It's funny how some parts can be right on, and other parts way off. The theater, in the other post... the roofline on the right side was perfect, but the left side (front of the building) was and is way off.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Interesting results even though you point out they didn't work just right in a couple of cases. Was it a hard technique to learn? Photoshop is scary.
;)
So that's why you mentioned the A&P the other day.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I discovered that fact by looking at the old photograph. The sign over the window on the left has the full name.

I already knew most of the Photoshop techniques I used. I learned a couple of new things.

[i.livejournal.com]

these are brilliant, kevin!

[serendipity.livejournal.com]

and that's high praise, considering the source!

[ravenfeather.livejournal.com]

These are INTERESTING!

[daphnep.livejournal.com]

I'm so impressed with how little the buildings have changed.

Also, something fun happens in the eye, looking at these. When I look specifically to see where old meets new, it's not hard to see that you've taken fairly simple shapes of the old and laid them against the new--yet in the eye, somehow, the two blur together beyond even what you've done. The probably emphasises the similarities. It really is cool.

I also imagine it wouldn't be hard to find commercial markets for these images, or more like them, if you wanted.

[serendipity.livejournal.com]

Hm, a saloon/florist shop. For people who were out drinking too late and wanted to appease the spouse at home, perhaps?